cjmacie wrote:Those needing or preferring lactose drink substitutes and using soya milk might scan the internet for information on the pros and cons of using soya products not processed in the ways known in east Asian countries.

Soy milk has long been a traditional beverage in east asia, since the Han dynasty IIRC.

Can you document that? I.e. precisely what's today called "soy milk" and not some traditional ferented soy by-product?

The story is that raw soy is indigestible for humans, is raised (98% of it) world-wide as livestock fodder.

That's not to say that Asian traditions have used processed soy by-products for ages, but always fermented or otherwise transformed into something more digestible by humans.-- things like tofu, miso, tempe, etc.

The trick today is that the soy-bean industry has discovered that using raw soy in human food has much high rate-of-return on investment (ROI). (And, as one of the wonders of the modern age, what's good (profitable) for the food industry turns out also to be good (profitable) for the medical industry.)

Its interesting to compare this poll with what ancient Indians especially monks would drink during the Buddha's day. While obviously they drank water; sugar water/cane juice, fruit juice, milk and other so called "fattening" drinks seem to have been consumed much more than Buddhists may be want to do now. I know there are mentions of sugar water in the Pali canon as well as non-intoxicating fruit juices, milk (which is sadly at only 3%) but no mentions of coffee or green or black tea come to mind.

cjmacie wrote:
Can you document that? I.e. precisely what's today called "soy milk" and not some traditional ferented soy by-product?

It was in a book called "The world of soy". There is a chapter about the early use of the soybean in China.

The story is that raw soy is indigestible for humans

Ok, but I don't see how that applies to soymilk since soymilk isn't raw soy, it's boiled as part of the process to make it.

Soy contains 'anti-trypsin' factors, which make it hard to digest to some extent. They say fermentation solves the issue because those anti-trypsic factors are modified by fermentation and no longer prevent trypsin from digesting proteins. I'm not sure if boiling has the same effect.

lostitude wrote:Soy contains 'anti-trypsin' factors, which make it hard to digest to some extent. They say fermentation solves the issue because those anti-trypsic factors are modified by fermentation and no longer prevent trypsin from digesting proteins. I'm not sure if boiling has the same effect.

It does. Trypsin inhibitors are sensitive to denaturation by heat treatment. Trypsin inhibitors are reduced by ~90% via cooking. This is the reason why the early Chinese started cooking it. They found that consuming it raw led to bloating, etc. Different cultivars of soy also contain different levels. Some cultivars contain close to 50% more than others. Modern day soymilk production chooses the lowest level cultivars. And they processes it even further, beyond cooking, reducing the inhibitors even more, down to 1%-1.5% of the original content. Because the levels are now so low, they are essentially irrelevant.

I try to avoid anything but water and (green) tea but sometimes I enjoy alcoholfree beers, they can be nice and also nutritious. Found a really good Gösser in my country but can't find much about it online, it's surely not the naturgold one though. This is my guilty pleasure, I guess. Would take recommendations if anyone else like them or puerh and green teas.